2023 Australian Open Week 1 winners, losers originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The 2023 Australian Open has been unpredictable to say the least and there’s still a lot more tennis action to come.
The Americans have been lifting the men’s bracket with four secured spots into Week 2 in Tommy Paul, Blake Shelton, JJ Wolf and Sebastian Korda.
There have also been a handful of upsets in Melbourne Park with No. 2 Ons Jabeur and No. 6 Maria Sakkari eliminated on the women’s side and No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Casper Ruud out on the men’s side.
In addition to the iconic wins and disappointing losses, the number of players that are getting injured keeps growing.
As the 2023 Australian Open is truly up for grabs, here are the winners and losers from Week 1:
Winner: Donna Vekić (CRO)
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The 26-year-old Croatian is off to a great start with wins over Russians Oksana Selekhmeteva and Liudmila Samsonova, followed by Spain’s Nuria Parrizas-Diaz. Vekić is set to take on Czech’s Linda Fruhvirtova for a spot in the quarterfinal.
Winner: Coco Gauff (USA)
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The 18-year-old American sensation enters Week 2 in both singles and doubles. In singles play, she defeated Czech’s Kateřina Siniaková, England’s Emma Raducanu and American Bernarda Pera to find her way to the fourth round. Gauff will take on a feisty No. 17 Latvian Jelena Ostapenko next.
Winner: Elena Rybakina (KAZ)
The 23-year-old Kazakhstani also enters Week 2 in both singles and doubles. She picked up an impressive win over 2022 Australian Open runner up American Danielle Collins to secure a spot in the fourth round. Prior to the win, she defeated Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan. Rybakina has a tough next round against No. 1 Poland’s Iga Swiatek.
Winner: Lin Zhu (CHN)
The 28-year-old Chinese scored an impressive win over No. 6 Greece’s Maria Sakkari to find herself in Week 2. Ahead of the upset, she beat Canada’s Rebecca Marino and Swiss Jil Teichmann. Zhu faces Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round.
Loser: Danielle Collins (USA)
The 29-year-old American fell to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in the third round after defeating Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya and Czech’s Karolína Muchová in the first two rounds. The 2022 Australian Open runner up will see her ranking dip after the tournament because she did not defend her points from last year.
Loser: Maria Sakkari (GRC)
The 27-year-old Greek fell in the third round to China’s Lin Zhu despite being the tournament’s No. 6 seed. Ahead of the loss, she took down China’s Yue Yuan and Russia’s Diana Shnaider.
Loser: Daria Kasatkina (RUS)
The 25-year-old Russian had a disappointing tournament, falling in the first round to fellow countrywoman Varvara Gracheva as the No. 9 seed.
Loser: Ons Jabeur (TUN)
The 28-year-old Tunisian fell to Czech’s Markéta Vondroušová in the second round after defeating Slovenia’s Tamara Zidanšek. Jabeur was the No. 2 seed after finishing runner up at the 2022 U.S. Open.
Winner: Tommy Paul (USA)
The 25-year-old American is into Week 2 with impressive wins over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and fellow countryman Jenson Brooksby. He enters the next round against Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.
Winner: Ben Shelton (USA)
The 20-year-old American never won a Grand Slam match before this year and finds himself in the fourth round of the Australian Open with wins over China’s Zhang Zhizhen, Chile’s Nicolás Jarry and Australian wild card Alexei Popyrin. In Week 2, he is set to face American J.J. Wolf.
Winner: J.J. Wolf (USA)
The 24-year-old American is in his first Grand Slam fourth round after beating Australian Jordan Thompson, Argentinian Diego Schwartzman and American Michael Mmoh. In Week 2, Wolf will face off against fellow countryman Ben Shelton for a spot in the quarterfinal.
Winner: Sebastian Korda (USA)
The 22-year-old American picked up a massive win over No. 7 Russian Daniil Medvedev to book himself a spot into Week 2. In the earlier rounds, Korda faced Chile’s Cristian Garín and Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki. Korda will face No. 10 Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Loser: Rafael Nadal (ESP)
Seems odd to have the word “loser” next to Nadal’s name, but fans had high hopes for the 36-year-old Spaniard, who fell in the second round to American Mackenzie McDonald. In the first round, the 22-time Grand Slam singles champion took down England’s Jack Draper.
Loser: Casper Ruud (NOR)
The 24-year-old Norwegian could’ve been the new world No. 1 had he won the Australian Open but fell in the second round to American Jenson Brooksby instead. In the first round, the 2022 French Open and U.S. Open finalist beat Czech’s Tomas Machac.
Loser: Daniil Medvedev (RUS)
The 26-year-old Russian was a finalist in the 2021 and 2022 Australian Open but lost in the third round in 2023 to American Sebastian Korda. In the first two rounds, the No. 7 seed beach beat American Marcus Giron and Australian John Millman.
Loser: Taylor Fritz (USA)
The 25-year-old top-ranked American fell in the second round to Australian-favorite Alexei Popyrin. In the first round, the No. 8 seed Fritz defeated Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.
